PRIME MINISTER José Sócrates has hailed the new single car document (Documento Único Automóvel), issued in Lisbon on Monday of this week (October 31), as “an emblematic example of public sector efficiency”.
He said that a project once considered impossible has become a reality, adding that it would save money and time. “The single car document is simpler, cheaper and more secure,” Sócrates said.
Until next February the new document, which substitutes the ‘livrete’ (small book) and the register of car ownership, can only be acquired in Lisbon at the Direccão Geral de Viação (Director General of Transport). After that date it will also be available at the organisation’s regional branches throughout the country.
The existing two documents cost citizens 50 euros and force car owners to obtain them from two different places, whereas the new single car document will cost only 30 euros and is acquired in one place.
Authorities assure motorists that the new single car document is much harder to forge. The president of the Portuguese Automobile Business Association (ACAP), Fernando Martonell, praised the new document but said that his organisation had requested it “15 years ago”.
